Fighting in UTJ to give the other the top position

Behadei is reporting that there is a dispute within UTJ about the upcoming elections.

According to the internal agreement, Agudath Yisrael has led the joint party in recent elections, with Yaakov Litzman holding the #1 spot in UTJ with Degel Hatorah having the first choice of job, with Degel Hatorah, headed by Moshe Gafni, taking the next spot, with the following slots alternating positions. In the upcoming elections it is supposed to be reversed, with Degel Hatorah taking the top spot at the head of the joint party and Agudath Yisrael taking the second spot with the first choice of job.

Degel Hatorah does not want this agreement to go into effect. Degel is claiming that the recent term was too short, with each party not really having enough time to have any effect or influence in its positions, so the upcoming Knesset should keep the same roles, with the reversal only going into effect in the elections after that.

It seems that Litzman wants to take the head of the Finance Committee for himself (it should be noted that he held this spot before Gafni did) instead of being a minister, which he might not be able to do at some point because of his legal issues. Degel on the other hand does not take ministerial positions, unlike Aguda, and it considers the head of the Finance Committee to be significantly more important than other positions that would be available after that. Degel, if it has its way, would take Finance Committee and let litzman take a ministerial position, and the rest gets divided up evenly. If Litzman has his way, Litzman would, possibly, take the Finance Committee, and then Gafni would only be able to take less important positions.

Gafni is adding to the threat that if he does not get that spot, he would retire. He is considering retiring anyway, but is saying this is the only job that would possibly keep him there. It seems Yisrael Eichler is taking out his long standing conflict with Litzman by taking Gafni's side in the dispute, if that makes a difference.

How will this end? I don't know. We wait and whatever happens happens. It is interesting that instead of fighting about leading the party they are fighting over taking the second spot. And not like in the maaselech we have all read of great people fighting each to give the other more kavod. Here they are fighting because due to unusual circumstances the leadership gets the lower hand and neither side wants that.

Reality does not always play out like the stories they teach us in school.

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